


Hibernation

by Emily_F6



Series: Irondad Bingo 2019 [10]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Adoption, Female Peter Parker, Gen, Hurt Peter Parker, Irondad Bingo 2019, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter is Penny because Peter is a girl, Protective Tony Stark, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-16
Updated: 2020-03-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:47:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23165710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emily_F6/pseuds/Emily_F6
Summary: It's been a hard few weeks, Tony told himself.  That's why he didn't notice when Penny started to act strangely.
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Irondad Bingo 2019 [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1664827
Comments: 5
Kudos: 419





	Hibernation

That last few weeks had been hard. Hard on Tony and hard on Pepper...and hard on Penny. Tony knew that it had been hard on Penny too. Harder than it had been on him. And he was doing his best. Never mind that it rarely felt like enough...like he was letting everyone down. Himself. Pepper. The kid. Any expectations that Penny's aunt might have had of him...just...everone.

Looking up from the circuit board he'd been messing with, taking a break from the nanotech that continued to elude him, he groaned and stretched, reaching his arms up and feeling his back crack. He'd been at it all day, hoping to either finish the new Stark Phone to get it on the market by the following month or finally break into nanotech. Nanotech was finicky though, and he needed to get all of the bugs out before he tried to test it in his armor. It was a welcome distraction from his new domestic problems, but he knew that he couldn't hide in his lab forever.

It hadn't been his fault. That's what Pepper had insisted more than once, well aware of his tendency to blame himself for everything. And logically, he knew that none of it...okay, almost none of it had been his fault. Not really. He never could have predicted what would happen. Never could have guessed that he would become the ill-equipped guardian of the spider-kid, and suddenly be expected to do things like sign report cards and keep up with when she had decathlon meets and make sure that there was food in the fridge (okay, so Pepper did that.)

"Sir, Pepper asked for me to remind you that it is almost time for dinner, and asks that you come upstairs."

Family dinners had also been Pepper's idea. Three days after Tony had picked her up from the apartment only five blocks from her old one, thanking the foster parents who had been looking after her as best as they could (as far as he knew), Pepper had called him out of his lab, and he'd come upstairs to find both his girlfriend as his ward at the dining room table, Pepper looking forcibly pleasant, and Penny downcast and vacant, and the three of them had sat down to dinner together every night since.

He'd told Penny that she could patrol. That she could still do things after school, but she came home straight after school or decathlon practice every day, her head down, lips drawn down into a frown, looking small and sad, and he had no idea how to fix it. No idea how to talk to the girl. Not when the last real conversation they'd had before her aunt's death had taken place after the whole ferry fiasco and had ended in him shouting at her and taking her suit...and her crying.

Tony had made a fifteen-year-old girl cry. Then he'd avoided reaching out to her for several weeks. And then he'd become her guardian.

"Tony?" He glanced up at Pepper as he stepped out of the elevator, wiping a hand over his face. It was almost six, so he knew the kid was home. He checked the living room as he passed, not seeing Penny on the sofa, where he sometimes found her watching tv or working on homework, or at the kitchen table. That wasn't surprising, though. Penny spent most of her time in her room.

"Hey. Where's the kid?" He asked, rubbing a hand over his face. Some days, it seemed like she might be okay. Or something verging on okay. She would smile at Pepper and thank her for making her lunch, or thank him for handing her twenty dollars to buy lunch at school that he was sure she wasn't spending, considering how pale and small she seemed. She'd lost weight, and her cheekbones were sharp and prominent. He was feeding her! Gave her all the money she could have needed and offered her more.

Pepper kept telling him that eventually, he was going to have to just talk to her. He thought that maybe he could keep feeding her and inviting her down to the lab and then it would be okay.

(It wouldn't. It wouldn't be okay. How could it ever be okay? He wasn't prepared for this. Wasn't trained for it. This was a kid and she was scared and grieving and confused and what could he ever offer her? He'd dealt with the death of his own parents by drinking himself to near comas every weekend. And so he'd done what he did best: disappeared into his lab and hoped that if he closed his eyes for long enough, the problem would go away.)

"In her room. Her teacher called." Pepper told him, glancing up from where she'd been chopping carrots, lips pressed together in worry.

"Why?" Tony wondered, pulling out his own phone to check his missed messages. He and Pepper were both listed as her emergency contacts, but he had listed himself first, figuring that he would be more likely to answer. Pepper spent her days in meetings, running his company, but lately, she'd made sure to be home by five or five-thirty every day. Pepper had been trying harder than he had, a traitorous voice in his brain whispered. She'd made an effort to be there for the girl. But every time he saw the kid, he saw her red eyes and wobbling lip as he'd snapped at her...as he'd told her that he was taking the suit back. He saw her lying in the medbay, skin burnt, eyes staring blankly at the ceiling, as one of his doctors informed him that she was covered in burns and had broken ribs and was malnourished...that this kid that he'd dragged halfway around the world was hurt because he'd taken away her suit and because she'd still been trying to help him.

He saw her sobbing into her pillow in the medbay, back to him, face in her hands, after he'd asked her what had happened to May.

"Her teacher, Mr. Harrington, said that she was having trouble concentrating and was falling asleep in class. He asked if everything was okay at home." Pepper told him, bringing him back to the present.

Home. Were things okay at home? Of course, everything wasn't okay at home, Tony wanted to say because this wasn't her home! Home had been an apartment in Queens and her aunt all he could offer her was a place in his tower, a guest room converted into a bedroom for a teenager with white walls and no kind of decoration other than a succulent in her window that Penny cared for better than he'd ever cared for anything. All he could offer was himself and all the money she could ever need. But it was better than the last place she'd been put.

Tony hadn't found out until later...until two months after he'd taken her suit. Until the middle of October when she'd saved his plane dressed in what looked like ripped, burnt pajamas but had actually been her old suit. The one she'd made herself. He'd found her on top of the roller coaster supports, leaning against a wooden beam, blood dripping from her cheek as she stared at him with bleary eyes and no apparent recognition. "Penny?" He'd asked, lowering his voice and reaching out for her. She hadn't flinched. Hadn't blinked or seemed to know who he was, but when he'd touched her cheek with his fingertips, she had finally reacted.

"They'll...they'll be mad. I'm late…" She'd whispered. And then her eyes had rolled back in her head and she would have fallen if he hadn't lunged to catch her.

He'd taken her straight to the medbay, only to learn from Friday that May was gone. That the woman had been on her way home and that the other driver had been distracted and that she'd died on impact. And that Penny had been put into foster care.

She hadn't called him. At first, he'd been upset about that. Incredulous. But then it had hit him. Why would she have called him? He'd taken her suit. He'd told her that she was done and that he was done and why would she have ever thought that he'd take care of her? It wasn't like he'd attempted to have any kind of relationship with Penny, even when she had been using the suit. Happy had ignored most of her calls, but he couldn't blame the man. He'd made Happy the middleman, adding Penny to his list of stuff to keep track of and had told himself that it would be better that way. That Penny was better off without him.

And now he was all she had.

Christmas was quickly approaching, and although he had a whole Amazon list of things that he was getting her, along with the new custom made Stark phone he was still working on, he knew that he could never give her what she really wanted...her aunt. Her home.

He had noticed that Penny had been dragging lately, and wondered if it had anything to do with the plummeting temperatures...or if it was something else. As far as he knew, she wasn't having nightmares. At least, Friday hadn't said anything. He'd given her her suit back the day he'd carried her to the medbay...the day after he'd had Friday call every doctor he trusted to take a look at her only to find out that she was malnourished and suffering from exhaustion and dehydration and also that her entire life had fallen apart in the months since he'd last seen her. But she hadn't used her suit even once. It sat folded at the bottom of one of her dresser drawers...she didn't even take it to school.

He knew this because he checked the tracker every day.

"Did you talk to her?" He asked, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge and taking a swig. It wasn't Pepper's job to talk to her, his brain informed him. Sure, Pepper had been great. She'd all but moved in, making sure to be there to make the girl dinner and offer to talk and she'd even taken her shopping for new clothes and school supplies. Pepper had gone above and beyond. But Tony was her guardian! Why couldn't he just talk to the kid?

Because Stark men were shit at talking to their kids. Because his father had been useless. An abusive, cruel, brilliant, fuck, and what if he was the same?

"She went straight to her room when she got home." Tony knew that it was hard on Pepper. She cared a lot about Penny, that much was obvious. But the girl had been distant and quiet and walked around their home like a zombie. And Tony hadn't talked to her, not really. Hadn't asked her about the foster home that he'd gotten her out of only after hiring six lawyers and paying off at least one judge. Maybe two. It had been a long night. Hadn't asked her about school or how she was feeling. He just...he had no idea how. Before everything, she'd been easy to talk to. Had hung on his every word and listened to his every order. But now...now that there were real emotions and real trauma...he was at a loss.

Rhodey had suggested a list of books on parenting and traumatized children. And a therapist for the girl. Pepper had seconded that, and even Vision had emailed him a list of books. But he'd only downloaded them to his tablet...hadn't been able to bring himself to read them. Because he wasn't her father. Could never be her father. Hell, there was no way she wanted him to be her father. So what was he? What possible role could he play in her life?

"I'll go check on her," He told Pepper, kissing her cheek as he passed, and Pepper turned, catching his hand.

"It's going to be okay." She told him, voice dropping to a murmur. He shook his head. There was no scenario that he could see where everything turned out okay. "You just need to get her to talk."

"Why would she want to talk to me?" He asked, letting the words he'd been feeling for so long escape. "I took her suit, Pep. I shouted at her and made her cry, then sent her home, and then her aunt died, and I didn't even know…"

"How could you have…" She started, but he went on.

"Then...now...I can't even talk to her. I don't know how! I don't know how to make this okay!"

"She's hurting," Pepper whispered, cupping his face in her hands. "She's in a new place with strange people...and she's scared. But she's going to be okay. We'll make sure she's okay."

Tony let himself believe that. Let himself nod and smile and kiss her once more. Then he headed toward the girl's room, rapping his knuckles against her bedroom door, not wanting to intrude, but also feeling tendrils of worry snake through his chest. Her teacher had called. Asked if everything was okay. And she was falling asleep in class. Why was she so tired? Was she getting sick? And if she was, what was he supposed to do? He couldn't exactly take her to a doctor. Could Spider kids even get sick? He could take her to the medbay and have the doctors there look at her.

There was no answer, so he tried the knob. The door was unlocked, so he pushed it open, stepping inside of the dim room, then paused when he caught sight of her curled up in her bed on her side, her back to him. Tony approached slowly, frowning as he got closer. Was she...shaking? Two quilts were draped over her...guest room quilts. Quilts you might find in a hotel. "Kiddo?" He asked, moving closer and putting a hand on her shoulder. She didn't respond. "Pen?" The girl groaned then, the sound barely making it out of her mouth as she shivered under his hand. "Penny? Kid? You ready for dinner?" When she looked up at him in the dim light, her eyes were unfocused and bleary, and he pressed the back of his hand to her forehead, nearly pulling back in surprise when he realized that her skin was cold. Really cold. "Geez, kid." He murmured, not failing to notice how gentle his voice had become. "You're freezing."

So...no fever.

Tony stood, moving over to her closet and pulling the door open, ignoring the pile of clothes on the floor and grabbing another quilt from the top shelf, then draping it over her. He sat beside her on the bed then, chest tightening when she only blinked at him, shivering and pulling the blanket more tightly around herself. "Friday? What's going on?" He asked, putting his hand back on her forehead and biting his lip when she leaned into the contact.

"It appears as though Penny's temperature is 96.1 and appears to be dropping."

"Okay…" He murmured, shifting so that he was a little closer and putting an arm around her, the movement as natural as anything despite the fact that he'd barely been able to speak to her for weeks. "Why?" He asked, glancing down when she moved even closer, shivering as she sought out his warmth without seeming to notice her own actions.

Since Penny had moved in with them, the two of them had had very little actual contact. He'd patted her own the back once or twice...sometimes touching her shoulder when she was reading or watching TV. Pepper had hugged the girl once after their first family dinner. Otherwise, she'd avoided them both, spending more of her time either at school or in her room with the succulent. "I am unable to determine the reason for the drop in her body temperature." He pressed his lips together, shaking his head. That didn't make any sense.

"Penny?" She hummed, eyes fluttering as the girl looked up at him. "You with me, kid?" Penny nodded. "How are you feeling?"

"M'tired," She muttered.

"Okay. Try to stay awake. I'm going to get you something to drink, and then I'll call a doctor." She didn't argue. Didn't even respond, and he brushed her hair back. "Friday, monitor her temperature."

"Might I suggest you take her blood sugar?" The AI asked, and he nodded.

"Right. Get someone from the medbay up here...someone that already knows about her mutation. Call Helen...ask if she can come over." He ordered as he walked. Pepper looked up from where she was standing at the stove, frowning as he approached.

"Is she okay?"

"I think she's sick. Her temp is dropping and she says she's tired." He told her, speaking quickly as he yanked the fridge open and pulled out a bottle of soda. "Friday, tell the doctor to bring a blood sugar testing kit." Pepper leaned against the counter, frowning and crossing her arms.

"Tony?" She asked, but he hurried past.

"A doctor should be on their way. I'm calling for Helen. I'll be right back." He promised, gripping the soda and hurrying back to Penny's room.

When he stepped back into the room, the girl was still huddled beneath her blankets, her forehead the only part of her body showing. "Pen?" He asked, reaching out to shake her shoulder. "Wake up, kiddo. I've got a doctor on their way...take a drink, huh?"

She didn't respond.

Frowning, he shook her a little harder.

Nothing.

"Penny!" He called, putting the soda on her bedside table and then pulling her up by her shoulders. Her head slumped backward, eyelids not even fluttering. "Kid! Hey, come on Spiderkid. Wake up. Come on, Penny." He murmured, slipping a hand beneath her neck to support her head as he tried to wake her, but there was no response. His chest tightened then, fingers pressed to her neck. There was a heartbeat, but it was slow...slower than it should have been. "Pep?" He called, his voice suddenly weak and afraid. "Friday, get Pepper! What's her heart rate?"

"Pepper is on her way. Penny's heart rate is 58 beats per minutes and dropping."

Tony swore under his breath, glancing up at the door and waiting for Pepper, knowing that there was nothing she could do but also needing her there.

Heart thudding in his ears, he sat down on her bed and pulled her upright, patting her cheek. "Penny. Penny, wake up, kid. You have to...you have to wake up, honey. Please. Please, kid." He begged, opening his mouth and all but gasping for air. It was getting harder to breathe which made no sense...he couldn't stop breathing. Penny needed him! His kid needed him and he hadn't even tried to talk to her and he'd been so afraid to try but now she wasn't waking up.

"Tony?" Pepper called, appearing in Penny's doorway. "What…"

"She won't wake up!" He half-screamed, cupping her face in his hand, holding her upright against his chest.

"Friday? What's wrong with her?" Pepper demanded, hurrying to join them and touching the girl's face, her other hand on his back.

"I am unsure," Friday answered, and sounded it. "She appears to be asleep."

"Yeah, I got that!" Tony snapped, and Pepper sat beside him, rubbing his back.

"Tony, you have to breathe. She's just asleep. You have doctors on their way…"

"She won't wake up." He reminded her, voice lowered a little, breaths coming easier...but he was still terrified.

"I know. But you called for Helen and…" Pepper cut herself off when a doctor tapped on the door. It wasn't Helen, but he had seen her around...Helen had trained her. But he couldn't remember her name.

"Mr. Stark?"

"Help her. Please." He all but demanded, and the woman, dressed in a lab coat, a black bag in hand, gave a sharp not. He was once more grateful that he kept the medbay staffed year-round, mostly with doctors who did research, attempted to develop new medicines, and were on hand for when he needed stitches. Now, Pepper pulled him out of the way, the two of them stepping to the side as the doctor knelt at Penny's side.

"Penny?" The doctor asked, pressing her fingers to Penny's throat and then opening the bag. Pulling a tiny needle and test kit out, she unwrapped the girl from the blankets, meeting no resistance. Pricking Penny's finger, she pressed the test strip to the drop of blood, then nodded at the number, tucking it back into the bag, then pulling out a stethoscope.

"Her airways are clear...she's not having any trouble breathing. Her blood sugar is a bit low...and her temperature is dropping. Has she been feeling sick?"

Tony had no idea. Had no idea if Penny had been sick. Because he'd barely spoken to her.

"I...I don't know. Her teacher called today...said she's been falling asleep in class."

"Okay…how long has she been asleep?"

"Only a few minutes." But he didn't really know that. What if she'd been asleep after she'd gotten home? What if something was seriously wrong with her?

"Alright. I'd like to bring her to the medbay. Would you like me to bring a gurney or can…"

"I'll carry her." He cut in, reaching out for Penny and pulling the girl into his arms. She was dead weight, head flopping backward until Pepper cupped her hand under the back of the girl's head and eased it onto Tony's shoulder.

She was so light.

He got her into the medbay with no issues. The girl didn't stir as he placed her onto a bed, the same one he'd placed her in when she'd been hurt...after she'd saved his plane from the Vulture and gotten herself beat up in the process.

It had exactly as much of her personality as her bedroom, which made his chest hurt. He needed to fix that...needed to fix so many things.

She didn't respond as she was hooked up to monitors, a bag with nutrients hung by her bed, blankets piled over her to attempt to warm her up. "She's not eating enough." The doctor told them, a second doctor joining them and pinching her skin gently. "And she's dehydrated."

Tony nodded, abashed. The girl was dehydrated. Malnourished. He was no better than her last foster home...and he knew! He knew that she had to eat more. Knew that her metabolism was faster and that she'd never ask for extra but that she needed it!

"She hasn't been eating." Pepper cut in softly. "She said she wasn't hungry this morning...I don't know if she had lunch." The first doctor nodded, and the two of them moved like birds, seeming to flit around the girl who was frighteningly still.

The morning after he'd brought her to the medbay the first time, after she had saved his plane and he'd found out that the kid was alone and hurt and living in a foster home, he'd called Pepper, catching her up on the situation as quickly as he could, and she'd responded without hesitation.

"Bring her here." Pepper had told him as he'd stood in his medbay, watching then stick the girl with needles and attach IVs to her arms. Helpless. He'd felt helpless, just like he did now. But her words had surprised him.

"Pep?"

"Bring her here, Tony. Get custody. She can't be in foster care. Not with her enhancements."

"But she...Pep, I haven't even talked to her in weeks and…"

"Tony, she needs you. I'll help you. But...Penny needs you. She needs us."

Now, the two of them stood together, Pepper slipping her hand into his and leaning on his arm as they watched the doctors work.

Helen Cho arrived about two hours later, hair pulled back, dressed in what looked to be a gown. "You're paying me overtime for this." She murmured, no real bite in her voice.

"Were you on a date?" He asked, surprised despite himself. He and Pepper had been sitting in chairs at the girl's side, and both watched her kick off a pair of heels, hurrying over in bare feet as she grabbed a lab coat and yanked it on.

"My brother's wedding." She told him absently, pulling her hands through the sleeves. Tony sighed, about to apologize, but she waved him off. "It's fine. I'll take my apology in the form of a Christmas bonus."

He had to chuckle, nodding, and running a hand through his hair, feeling more and more exhausted by the moment. "She's asleep." He told her. "That's what the other doctors said...she's just...asleep…" He shrugged, at a loss. "And we can't wake her up."

She nodded, grabbing her chart and flipping through it. "Has she been acting strange? Eating more or less? Trouble focusing?"

"I...I think so. Yeah." Tony nodded, she glanced up at him. He waited for her judgment. For her incredulous questions...the same ones he was asking himself. Why wouldn't he know? Didn't Penny live with him? Wasn't he her guardian now? Instead, she gave him a gentle smile.

"How has it been going? I know you just became her guardian...I'm sure it's been hard." He pressed his lips together and nodded, dropping his eyes. He had no answer to that. Couldn't bring himself to brush it off.

"Yeah." He whispered.

Helen continued to look the girl over, he and Pepper sitting on Penny's other side while Helen worked. She asked more questions that Tony couldn't answer...questions that Tony should have been able to answer. Still, when she was done, she placed her hand on Penny's cheek, seeming to feel for something, then turned back to Tony. "I don't think she's asleep."

"What?" He asked, leaning forward in his chair over Penny's bed.

"I think she's hibernating." Pepper's jaw dropped, and he looked down at the girl...the unnaturally still girl in the bed.

"Hibernating?" He repeated, voice faint.

"Yes. The drop in temperature can cause some species of spiders to hibernate, and since her DNA was fused with arachnid DNA…" She shrugged. "Penny is showing all the signs. Dropping temperature, slowed heart rate, slowed breathing…"

"So she...she's okay?" He asked, feeling hope flare in his chest for the first time since he'd seen the girl unconscious on her bed...in a room that hadn't been decorated for her under quilts that wouldn't have looked out of place in a hotel room.

"She's hibernating, and that's a problem...but yes. She's going to be okay."

Tony dropped back in his chair, closing his eyes and placing his hand over Pepper's where it sat on Penny's arm, both of them careful of the IV. She was going to be okay. He still had time. He could still talk to her. Could still try to fix this. Because...she was his kid. He had taken over her guardianship and taken her into his home and now...now she was his kid. And he had to take care of her. Wanted to take care of her. He would read the books, talk to the therapist...whatever it took to help her through this.

While Helen worked on figuring out how to wake Penny up, and while Pepper hurried upstairs to make some phone calls to clear their schedule for the next day or two. He'd also asked her to call the therapist that Rhodey had recommended and set up a tentative appointment for the next weekend. His brain whirled as he came up with ways to fix this...ways to make it all better. A family trip. Somewhere nice and isolated with just the three of them where he could finally talk to the girl...ask her the things he should have asked in the first place. They could work in his lab and maybe fix her suit up together. Something...anything...anything to fix this. Because he was going to fix this.

It took Helen four more hours to come up with something...something about hormones or chemicals...honestly, it was nearly two in the morning, and Tony was exhausted. But he watched Helen insert something into Penny's IV port, and not twelve seconds later, she started to shiver under the blankets. "Penny?" He asked. Beside him in a bed a few feet away, Pepper had long since curled up under her own blanket, shoes kicked off and lying haphazard on the floor, so he kept his voice down.

"She's warming up." Helen murmured, pressing her fingers to Penny's throat. "Heart rate speeding up...good." On the bed, the girl shivered even harder, lips turning down and wobbling, eyes squeezing shut even tighter, and he glanced up at the doctor. "This dose should be enough to keep her from hibernating again, but you might consider keeping the temperature in the tower a little higher...and make sure she stays warm through the winter."

"Turn up the temperature, beach vacation, and lots of winter clothes. Got it." He told her with a grin, brushing his hands through the girl's hair. "Hear that, Pen?" He whispered, leaning in. "We're going to make sure this doesn't happen again, okay?" He pulled the blanket up, tucking it around her neck, then placed his hand on her cold cheek.

"Huh?" The girl asked, turning her head his way and frowning. "Wha…"

"Penny? You with me, kiddo?"

And then she opened her eyes, blinking at him with a confused frown. "Missr...Stark?" She asked.

"Yeah, kiddo. Are you awake?"

"Mhm. Wha...what happened?"

"You tried to take a winter nap on me, Spiderling." If anything, she only looked more confused, but he just smiled. "I'll explain later. How are you feeling?"

"Um...I'm...I'm okay." She muttered, looking around the room and spotting Pepper. "Is Pepper okay?"

"Yeah, Pen, she's fine." He murmured, placing his hand on her cheek. How about I find you something to eat, and then we can talk?"

For a long moment, she just looked at him, something hopeful and afraid in her eyes. But then she nodded, a tiny smile turning the corners of her lips. "Okay."

It had been hard for all of them, and it might get even harder before it was all over, but Tony was going to get his kid through this. No matter what.


End file.
